June the 18th, 2024 – Yet another Croatian megaproject has been announced. This one will come with an eye-watering price tag of 20-30 million euros and is focused entirely on Zadar.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the last time a train entered the Zadar station was more than a decade ago. Since then, the existing infrastructure in the city’s Arbanasi district has been left to fall into a state of disrepair. The state’s announcement about the reconstruction of the railway line and the re-establishment of railway traffic between Zadar and Knin made many happy, but also opened a new perspective for the development of Zadar as a whole, reports HRT.
The reconstruction of the railway and the building of the existing station will be moved from the centre of the city to the port of Gaženica. That move will open the door (and widely) to the realisation of this huge Croatian megaproject. A much more futuristic Zadar should spring up on the site of the rusty rails that have been left to go to ruin, breathing life into the city in a way few could have expected.
Zadar Mayor Branko Dukić stated that this Croatian megaproject should connect the old part of the city with the port of Gaženica by road, but primarily by a promenade.
“We colloquially referred to this Croatian megaproject as Zadar 2, because it would actually be the second centre of the city,” pointed out architect Pero Marušić, the author of the project. There would be a series of new facilities that would raise the quality of life for Zadar’s residents, as well as provide a new economic and tourist flywheel.
Marušić revealed, among other things, that a school, kindergartens, probably also a church, and a park and a promenade are all currently being planned. All this would spring up in a space that today serves absolutely no one and nothing.
Mayor Dukić said that he will ask the state to hand over that space to them in order for the full potential of this Croatian megaproject to come to fruition.
The project also envisages the reconstruction of the Bregdetti port, with 300 brand new communal berths. In the Arbanasi district, they are looking forward to another special project facility – the city stadium, but for now the capacity hasn’t yet been defined.
Between 20-30 million euros of the estimated value would be tried to be diverted from the city and state budgets and rescue funds from the EU. Darko Kasap, head of the Administrative Department for Spatial Planning and Construction, expects that this Croatian megaproject and everything it entails can be realised in one term.
